Davao life is now beginning to be more stimulatingly and intellectually active and creative. In the artistically industrial world of advertising and cinema, a game-changer might have possibly just rolled back into town in a form of a burly but adorable man with dreadlocks as long as Rapunzel’s—his name is Mr. Mike Zafra.
His surname might already be familiar to some, as his family owns the long-operating Midtown printing company in the city. Mike has a lifelong passion for filmmaking and music; he started videography as a child and then moved onto producing music.
“My family and I moved to the US when I was about nine years old and during high school—with the use of my old-school videotape camera, I would just start filming anything and everything from random friends skateboarding to school projects—which my teacher complimented me on. Straight out of high school, I worked for a techno/house music 
record label. I have hundreds of vinyl records that I would use to produce music for LA’s underground scenes. This gave me the opportunity to travel all over the world DJ-ing professionally for several years. During college, however, I studied biology or pre-med but just wasn’t feeling it, because obviously, my passion was someplace else,” the filmmaker shared. Eventually, Mike finally decided to quit the sciences and focus on his side jobs and finally enrolled at LA’s California State University studying film.
After university, Mike combined his two passions by creating music videos, events and visual presentations for local musicians. His experience led him to feature film and commercial work, gaining a deep understanding of the intricacies of physical production. He is also an accomplished editor and has cut hundreds of pieces of content for Emmy-winning studios and networks.
Helping to expand his family’s business, he put up a branch of his successful production company back in LA with foreign partners called “Cinedashery” here in Davao, it is one of LA’s leading multi-platform production companies creating content for groundbreaking trans media experiences and has directed, produced, or crewed on projects for Fortune 500 clients such as Google, Hyundai, Cisco, Fox, and Dodge. They aim to produce and direct internationally top quality video projects at a local cost.
“Our production company here is unlike any other since we offer a wide range of services, aside from printing, of course, we do conceptualization, writing, filming, post-production for both corporate use and artistic filmmaking. Another thing that is unique about us is that we have our own pool of talents so that our clients don’t have to worry about sourcing out their own,” Mike states.
Personally, it has been an exciting meet-and-greet with Sir Mike and his producer, Mrs. Cherry Ledesma—like how local newspapers are helping promote local artists, it isn’t all about the money after all—but the advocacy of the arts here in our wonderful and ever-growing city. The company has great plans of organizing creative events fashioned after festivals abroad that can further influence and uplift local artists.
If you are interested to be part of this movement or might just want to be part of their pool of talents, you may contact Cherry Ledesma at c.ledesma@greyandgreen.tech/+639063579614 or visit their studio at MPCI Building Bonifacio St. Life is here and we can make it more colorful and meaningful.
